Crime, Dan Markel, Deaths, Murder

The Dan Markel Case: Luis Rivera Points The Finger At Wendi Adelson

What exactly did Luis Rivera tell the police during his recent interview?

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Luis Rivera (via WCTV)

Luis Rivera (via WCTV)

Last week, Luis Rivera pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, acknowledging his role in the July 2014 murder of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel. Rivera received a fairly lenient sentence for murder — seven years on top of the 12 years he’s currently serving in federal prison for an unrelated crime — because of his willingness to cooperate with law enforcement.

On October 4, Rivera spoke at length to investigators working on the Dan Markel case. You can access video footage of Rivera’s interview over at the Tallahassee Democrat. The footage, broken into two parts and running about two hours in total, will fascinate followers of the case.

The questioning of Rivera began shortly after 10 a.m. on October 4. Rivera was accompanied by his lawyer, Chuck Collins, and took questions from two male investigators. All four men sat around a table, joined by an unidentified woman who did not speak during the interview.

Watching the video, I found Rivera to be a decent witness, candid and cooperative. Of course, as I’ve said before, I’m not a psychologist, investigator, or any sort of expert in these matters; watch the footage yourself and come to your own conclusions. It’s worth noting, though, that much of what Rivera told investigators is consistent with what we already know and is corroborated by other evidence, including surveillance videos, rental car records, cellphone data, and statements from other witnesses.

The Tallahassee Democrat has this report:

“I thought we were going to come up here and rob somebody,” Rivera told investigators in an Oct. 4 interview. “So when I get in the car that’s when [alleged hitman Sigfredo] Garcia told me what we were coming up here for. We were coming up here to kill somebody.”

Rivera told Tallahassee Police investigators he had no idea who Markel was before Garcia came to his North Miami home to discuss the crime. Rivera said he did not know the names of the people who hired Garcia.

Garcia, who is scheduled to stand trial Nov. 14, told him he had been hired to kill Markel in connection with his child custody battle with his ex-wife Wendi Adelson, Rivera said.

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“Rivera said he did not know the names of the people who hired Garcia.” That’s key — and why Rivera is not in a position to implicate the Adelsons, some of whom the police suspect as the real parties behind the hit. Throughout the interview, Rivera generally does not refer to the Adelsons by their names. For example, he refers to Wendi Adelson, the ex-wife of Dan Markel who wanted to relocate with their two kids to south Florida, as “the lady,” and he refers to Wendi’s brother Charlie as “the dentist.” (Through their lawyers, the Adelsons have denied any involvement in Markel’s murder.)

During the questioning, Rivera revealed how much he and his alleged co-conspirators were paid:

There was $100,000 in cash waiting once the murder was done.

Garcia, who would take $40,000, promised him $35,000.

The rest, and then some, went to Garcia’s on-and-off girlfriend Katherine Magbanua, Rivera said.

Ah yes, Katie Magbanua — who according to law enforcement is in a position to implicate whoever ordered the murder, and who just got booked into the Leon County Jail yesterday. Magbanua played a major role in the conspiracy, in Rivera’s telling:

“Katie is the woman in the middle doing everything,” Rivera said in his interview. “It’s all because of Katie, man. She had [Sigfredo Garcia] crazy. She would go cheat on him and she would tell him if you want me back you have to go do this.”

Magbanua, who at the time was dating Charlie Adelson — [whom] Rivera referred to as “the dentist” — was arrested Oct. 1 on charges of first-degree murder in Broward County.

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As longtime followers of this case will recall, Katie Magbanua is the key connection. She has two children with alleged hitman Sigfredo Garcia, and at the time of the murder she was dating Charlie Adelson, brother of Dan Markel’s ex-wife, Wendi Adelson. Without Magbanua, there’s no apparent link between Markel, Garcia, Rivera, and the Adelsons.

Speaking of Wendi Adelson, Rivera’s comments about her might well be the most noteworthy part of the interview. Per WTXL:

He mentioned to investigators how during their first trip to Tallahassee, they drove by Wendi Adelson, Markel’s ex-wife, while she was with her children.

Rivera told investigators that he noticed Garcia and Adelson making eye contact and said he began to wonder [who] she was. That’s when he said he began suspecting that Garcia was displaying to Adelson that they had arrived.

Actually, based on my viewing of the video, I believe that this sighting of Wendi with the two kids took place on the second visit to Tallahassee, on the day before Markel’s murder. (Listen for yourself; the relevant discussion begins around 11:05 a.m.)

Rivera said that he and Garcia, while driving around to survey the area near Markel’s house, passed Wendi walking down the street with her two children. Rivera felt that Wendi noticed them, and he didn’t like it; he asked Garcia, “What’s up with that lady?” Garcia responded, “That’s the lady — that’s Wendi.” Note that earlier in the interview, Rivera said he was told the motive for the murder was that “the lady wants her two kids back.”

Rivera and Garcia then drove back to the motel where they were staying, according to Rivera, and Garcia called Magbanua to ask what Wendi Adelson was doing in the neighborhood. Magbanua supposedly told Garcia that Wendi was in the area because “she just wants to make sure everything’s all right.” Garcia asked Magbanua, “Is everything all right with this lady?” Magbanua responded, “Yeah, everything’s straight, don’t worry about it — just make sure you get that s**t done.”

Now, Rivera wasn’t as clear as he could have been in this part of the interview. But if you watch and listen to the relevant part of the video, it’s fair to interpret “she [Wendi] just wants to make sure everything’s all right” as “she just wants to make sure everything’s on track with regard to the hit,” and Magbanua’s reference to “just make sure you get that s**t done” as “just make sure you complete the murder as planned” (especially since, according to Rivera, he and Garcia were told that Markel was leaving town later on Friday).

UPDATE (10:15 a.m.): For extended, direct transcription of the relevant discussion, see Paul Caron’s post at TaxProf Blog, Hit Man Implicates Wendi Adelson In Dan Markel’s Murder.

So does this mean, contrary to my previously expressed belief, that Wendi Adelson knew about the murder in advance or even played a role in planning it? It’s possible — but it’s also still possible that Wendi didn’t have advance knowledge. Rivera’s testimony on this rather important topic is muddled and confused — not surprising, given that these events took place more than two years ago — and one can see how Rivera might have jumped to some conclusions or made some incorrect assumptions.

Rivera said he was told that he and Garcia were being hired to murder a man (Dan Markel) because “this lady” wanted him gone so she could get full control over their kids. So perhaps Rivera assumed — not illogically — that the hit was ordered by “this lady,” because she had the most to gain from the murder. But Rivera failed to consider the possibility that the hit might have been ordered by the family of the lady — relatives who wanted to help her, who have always taken a protective attitude toward her, who did not want her to get into any trouble with law enforcement — without her knowledge.

Also note that Rivera — who knows only part of the story behind the murder, a la the blind men and the elephant — might have conflated two “ladies.” There was the “lady” who wanted full custody of her kids, and there was the “lady” who ordered the hit and gave Garcia (through Magbanua as conduit) some pocket money for the two trips to Tallahassee ($5,000 for the first, abortive trip, and $2,000 for the second trip). Rivera — again, perfectly logically — probably assumed that these two “ladies” were one and the same, when it’s possible that they were two different ladies: Wendi would be the first lady, and her mother Donna Adelson would be the second lady (a theory previously laid out by the police, who have alleged that Charlie and Donna Adelson played roles in Markel’s murder).

Is it possible I’m wrong about all this? Absolutely. There’s still so much that we don’t know. But if Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua end up following Luis Rivera’s lead and telling the police what they know, then we will soon find out the real masterminds behind the murder of Dan Markel.

Of one thing I am certain: whoever ordered this cold-blooded killing is no lady.

Rivera: ‘We were coming up here to kill somebody’ [Tallahassee Democrat]
Third Markel suspect, Katherine Magbanua, booked in Leon County [Tallahassee Democrat]
Suspect in Dan Markel Murder Confesses His Involvement on Camera [WTXL]

Earlier: The Dan Markel Case: Luis Rivera Pleads Guilty
The Dan Markel Case: Katherine Magbanua Arrested And Charged With Murder

David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.

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